To all our millions of faithful readers

To all of our millions of faithful readers... Please be patient, this blog will be updated shortly...

So, just in case you were wondering what has happened to The Woods...

From November the 16th the ski season opened... That should say it all ;)
Then, there were the German Christmas Markets; then shopping for the arriving Marais clan; then frozen lakes for Christmas and new ice skates;
Then a week-long road trip in a vw kombi with 4 adults and 4 kids (ages 3;4;5;&6!!!!) through Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Followed by a week of skiing in France at Samoëns in the Grand Massives with the view of Mont Blanc
This is now our first week-end home since the 9th of November and we are wading through the over 2000 photos from the trip and planning our next ski week-end!

5th Jan - Tour Day 9

Well, this is it! Today we get to Samoens! But first there is stuff to see and do...
Beginning with Sion, we wanted to see the two castles, visible from the road and our hotel, up close. Last night there was not enough energy around to even get some decent night-time photos of the castles, let alone a visit.

The Château de Valère and the Château de Tourbillon each sit atop a hill overlooking the city. Tourbillon is a ruin, while Valère is still in good shape. Going through the old town wall we made our way up to the top of the enclosed town and could see both castles above.

The entrance through the town wall

 

Hayley and Michelle decided to see Valère while Pierre and I, with all the kids opted for the ruin of Tourbillon.

Tourbillon from the parking area... that's a long way up, and were not carrying building material!

During the long climb to the top we had the company of one of the local's dogs, a border collie, who kept the kids so amused fetching sticks and things that they forgot to ask the two old men for "uppies" - what a dog!

 

The mutt up front with keen kids in tow

 

Arriving at the top, we found the door to the castle locked! How rude, and only due to open a good 30 minutes or so from now.

This is Château de Valère from the battlements of Torbillon

And another... nice setting what?

Back down the hill again... babies ready to depart with Sion in the background

After the trip to see the castles, we began the drive to Samoens.

Pierre taking the wheel for a bit, so yours truly could rest his royal raggedness in the back.

If you've ever wondered what a Mishcat looks like in a speeding van...

After the climb out of Sion, we had to stop and admire the view - can you spot our van? - its the one packed to the limit...
Just beyond the building you see in front of the van in the picture above, the road curves and presents the Rhone Valley...

After dragging ourselves back to the car we were forced to travel through the rest of this very ordinary place...

We attempted a cable car ride up Mont Blanc, I stayed in the van, due to my bout of the dreaded lurgy, while the 7 merrymen made off for the lift. I'd just settled down on the back seat, snacks all packed out, cosy warm, ready to sleep for a few hours when they all returned! Bummer... It was the wrong lift station or something, I can't remember the reason, only the fact that I didn't get to snooze!

This is one of the glaciers that we passed on the way out of Sion

We arrived in Samoens after 3 pm, called Yves, the agent for the farmhouse we rented, and met up with his wife at the tourist information centre in the little town. She showed us through to the house, which is HUGE, there are 5 bedrooms, 2 of which are suites with their own lounges, all are en-suite, nice kitchen, games room with pool table, a massive dining room, cosy lounge with a fireplace and a laundry room equipped with a washing machine and tumble dryer. The house is a restored 17th century farmhouse, stone on the ground floor and wooden upstairs, wooden paneling etc, very, very pleasant.

 

It's heaven for kids, snow outside, masses of space inside, Satellite TV, a games console, close enough to town and the lifts - excellent.
Yves' wife organised ski passes for us, and we had lessons for the kids lined up too. Yves had organised an aupair to fill in for us when the kids needed it, so we were all sorted for the week. I went to bed to get rid of the last of my illness while the family settled in. Got to be ready for tomorrow!

Click here for the previous day - 4th Jan

Click here for the first day - 26th Dec

4th Jan - Tour Day 8

Switzerland is a *insert list of superlatives* beautiful country. It doesn't take the prize from Scotland, but it's a close second. You'll look at something passing by outside of the car window, know you're looking at it, but you can't grasp what you're seeing, well, let me speak for myself.

The other immediately noticeable thing about Switzerland are the tunnels. There are tunnels everywhere, miles of them. The Swiss will go out of their way to tunnel through anything they can find, they'll even make a tunnel where there isn't a mountain, I don't know why, it's just what they do - even their cheese is full of holes going in no particular direction.
We wanted to see the St Gotthard tunnel, which we did... twice!

I don't know how it happened, but the kids developed this zombie-like droning mantra for driving through the kilometers of tunnel. "I must be dreaming, stop the car, I must be dreaming, get this dream out of me, stop the car, stop the car..." Repeat any of these phrases any number of times, and in any order, from the moment we enter the tunnel till the moment we leave it. Importantly it must be said loudly, very slowly and in the best low monotone one can muster.

We'd planned to fit in a trip on the Jungfrau train and a visit to the Aletsch Glacier today, but didn't manage either. The directions on the GPS didn't work out to be doable - turns out that we'd need to be on the other side of the mountain range, so the plan was scuppered!

We stopped for lunch at Hospental,

and, while we were having lunch were informed by the owners that the road passes we needed to take to get to Sion were all closed. Fortunately there is a train that will get us there, and surprisingly TomTom knew about it... It took us to a point and then said "Take the ferry..." well ok, it's a train ferry, but fair enough, we took the ferry.

The train is a long flatbed, mostly under roof, we drove on and parked waiting to make the trip.

Waiting for the ferry at Realp...

There she is...
Most of the trip passed by in complete darkness because the train is in a tunnel for most of the journey.
Nevertheless, we got to the other side of some mountain and continued on our way.

Switzerland, and some of the closer parts of Germany, have these very oddly shaped houses... Typically made of wood, look ancient, and appear to have been slapped together during a very cold winters night. Like someone was in a hurry to have a shelter and paid no attention to symetry, right angles or any other key design principles... then never went back to remedy the construction when summer rolled on - oh, but they add on new rooms that look equally hastily scrambled. This is not a particularly good example, but you get the idea...?

Look at the avalanche countermeasures on this hill... I wonder what the property prices are like below that lot.

A windy, windy road going up a mountain...

By late afternoon we had made our way to Sion, me feeling crook, all I wanted to do was get into bed... tomorrow was another day
This is Tourbillon in Sion from our hotel parking lot... on tomorrows schedule

 

A very blurry picture of Sion on the mountainside - pretty in the dusk, lights coming on etc

 

 

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